About By any measure, for most of us, this segment of time has been utterly rubbish, either because of world events and our reaction to them or something horrible which has happened closer to home. Now that we know for sure that the world is a divided, broken place, I decided that that this year's blog review should be a list of good things which happened in 2016. 216 of them. So people tweeted, Facebooked and emailed sentences. Something which has happened to them or something they've enjoyed. Something about a song, a film, a book, a meal, a friend. Or just something which they found positive about this unusually horrendous year. Dozens of people contributed and they're credited below. Everything else was chosen by me. Let's take the zero out of 2016 and find out what's left.

51. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is always insightful, moving, feminist and funny, but in season two it kicked things up a notch. Episode four brought us not only one of the most realistic, no-nonsense abortions on TV, but also this cheeky little number from the depths of Rebecca’s subconscious. Naturally, it both reflects her insecurities about sex and references an iconic routine from Singin' In the Rain… - @dianeshipley

58. The Magicians is a TV adaptation of Lev Grossman's 'Harry Potter meets The Secret History' novel and a fine example of clever adaptation between media. The TV show preserves the spirit and tone of the original while changing loads of details in smart and practical ways, and through the first season has evolved a waspish pragmatic style of humour all of its own. - @markclapham

105. I was so lucky to see/hear both Stevie Wonder and Brian Wilson live in 2016, and both occasions were as amazing as I'd hoped. It's a truism, but music really does make things better. - @notesuponnotes

156. I got back together with the love of my life and he took me to new York for the first time. - @WastedElegance

157. Met Nichelle Nichols (who played Uhuru in original Star Trek) and told her she'd been an inspiration to women like me. - @vauxhallwoman

158. I studied all year for a professional qualification, and today got the job I wanted from it. - @TrapOne_

159. Being diagnosed with depression. Sounds like a downer, but actually, doing something about it and getting it treated after 20+ years has resulted in the last few months being the happiest I've had in a very long time. - @TheDaiLlew

160. My best friend of 27 years getting married. In a castle. - @TheDaiLlew

161. Cross legged by the side of my wife we sat on the sitting room floor of a friend’s home in front of the flames of a real fire. I gazed at her, and we looked round the room at a group of people who, in the space of what seems only a few months, have become close friends. And in the midst of all the unsettling moments of 2016 at that moment, during that weekend, I knew that I was blessed to have a circle of people whose company I enjoy, and with whom I felt secure. - @GeoffShadbold

162. I learned early this year that a series of satirical novels from the 1950s to early 1980s had been reprinted by the author’s family. And so I spent Christmas night chuckling while reading of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick declaring war on the United States as Leonard Wibberley’s mouse roared once again. - @GeoffShadbold

170. This year, Kevin and I conquered the foxtrot, at least to the point of being able to move around the dance floor without colliding with other dancers! We can also now do a passable tango and cha-cha, and are looking forward to adding more dances to our repertoire in 2017. - @suw

177. Creating 'Baker's End' with Simon Barnard and our fabulous cast and crew. We came up with it because we were a bit fed up at the end of last year, and we made something that we hoped would cheer up ourselves and everyone else. And we had bloody good fun making it. - @paulmagrs

180. As property developers circle Crusader Mill, it’s been great to see the artists at Rogue Studios respond critically and creatively and forge overdue collaborations with neighbouring textile producers. - @Natalieviolet

181. I managed to successfully grow green beans from a seed this year. Only one plant survived the snails in my garden, but I got enough beans for a couple of meals. My grandparents grew all their own veg for many years, and that side of the family were market gardeners going back generations, but I’d never managed to grow anything before. - @lydiajo

182. Having self-published a children's book with one of my best friends, I'm delighted that the story has found a small but appreciative audience. - @LizLockhart1985

184. I got a book deal for a book with an autistic girl as the main character (to counterbalance the never ending number there are about boys). - @karamina

185. My baby niece Gracie beat a cancerous Wilms tumour and had one of her kidneys removed by the wonderful surgeons and Drs at Great Ormand St Hospital. She's just been given a full bill of health. Worth all of 2016 just for that. - @JoCoumbe

203. My son called me 'Mummy' for the first time. That was nice. - @hayjane

204. I got a new job, lovely friends got married in November. - @AnneMarieT123

205. The Orbiting Human Circus Of The Air is a podcast that feels like Wes Anderson directing a loose remake of David Lynch's very odd sitcom On The Air, a super whimsical, melancholy series about a radio show broadcast from the Eiffel Tower that defies reason and geography. More compelling and less annoying than it has any right to be, and beautifully produced. - @markclapham

206. The long term plan that my husband and I made when we started dating came to fruition in 2016, and we get to move back to our favourite place in the world. - @eurovisellie

207. I found my happy place - on the dance floor in the Euroclub at the Eurovision Song Contest. - @eurovisellie

208. A stranger asked for suggestions about good things that happened in 2016. Spent a memorable day at work with colleagues shouting out random positives ('Golden Eagle numbers are rising!', 'Nimrud not totally destroyed by ISIS!') - @vauxhallwoman

213. I gave birth to our baby daughter the day that Trump got in. What felt like the darkest day politically was illuminated by an overwhelming joy and hope. As my husband relayed the news to me in the delivery room, I didn't despair at the world I had brought her into, rather I felt that her purity and goodness could chase away the bad. - @toomanydresses

214. All those small reminders that the loudest voices don’t represent who we are and there’s still a lot of decency in the world. Like this one. - @hannahkirkman

215. Discovering that my friends are my family and the energy to fight for a better world because things have been so bad. - @Danoosha

216. I'm still alive and relatively healthy, for which I am genuinely thankful. - @lemurpatrol

A Thinkfluencer's Christmas Carol:
"Marley was dead: to begin with. Or his brand was, anyway. His Twitter avatar was an egg, and his only tweet read, “Hello, #world. Still figuring out this #twitter thing.” He had no LinkedIn profile. Did Scrooge know Marley’s brand was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? He had forced Marley out of the counting-house, citing his failure to promote the business on social media as an abrogation of his duties."

How does a vegetarian do Christmas?
"I love the few days before Christmas. In fact, I think prefer them to the day itself. I thrive on the frantic last-minute shopping, the armfuls of bags, the evenings wrapping and tying presents. Queuing out the door of the greengrocer’s to overfill my basket with every possible thing I might need (and then the same on top again)."

Why Mariah Carey’s Christmas hit will be around forever:
"Mariah Carey had a banner year in 1994. Her third studio album, 1993’s Music Box, had grown into a blockbuster hit, thanks to the chart success of songs such as the Harry Nilsson cover “Without You” and the inspirational “Hero.” Billboard named Carey the top female pop singles artist of 1994—she had five singles chart in the Hot 100—and the top female pop artist overall, as measured by combined albums and singles activity. Still, even being on a commercial hot streak didn’t guarantee that her 1994 Christmas album, Merry Christmas, which spawned “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” was going to find an audience."

Pregnant waitress gets $900 tip just days before Christmas:
"Everyone knows that waiters and waitresses in the US get lousy wages. It’s one of the reasons people usually try and remember to give them a tip. One couple in Arizona certainly bore that in mind when they gave a heavily pregnant waitress a Christmas gift of $900."

Crowding Around the Nativity:
"The Gospel of Luke says that the pregnant mother of Jesus could not find shelter in an inn, so she had no place to put down her newborn but in an animals’ food trough—phatne in Luke’s Greek, the word rightly translated as praesepium (Latin), krippe (German), crèche (French), presepe (Italian), manger or crib (English)."

A Blood Curdling Collection Of Scary Snowmen:
"The typical soft and smiley snowmen just don't seem appropriate for a year as messed up as 2016, so it's no surprise there have been way more horror snowmen going around the net this year than ever before."

Eva Wiseman: The Christmas journey:
"You're reading this (indulge me) in hour three of a five-hour train ride. Spread out on the table in front of you are an unread novel with an illustration of a teacup on the front (teacup book covers are the new pink stiletto, keep up loves) and a greasy Marks & Spencer salad box containing a single flaccid bean."

All Dead, But Still Alive:
"We’ve no way of knowing for certain what Gordon Murray was doing on 22nd December 1965, but we can take a fairly good guess."

Diary: Alan Bennett.
"11 January. It’s not to disparage David Bowie, but if even a fraction of the tributes being paid to him and his influence were true we would never have had a Conservative government or indeed any government at all."

7 Wonders: Christmas (s)hits:
"When it comes to our contributors and Christmas tunes, it seems one woman’s chocolate Santa is another woman’s soggy sprouts. We all agree Susan Hanks is just plain wrong, mind."

Costume Party: Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut:
"One of the chief pleasures of the film is its enveloping look into the sumptuous lifestyles of the wealthy (lifestyles made all the more aesthetically pleasing when bedecked with twinkling Christmas lights). The very first shot shows Alice from the back as she takes off a filmy black dress."

Racist White Lady Spreads Racist Christmas Cheer To Hispanic Ladies, Racistly:
"Yay, another white racist lady video has gone viral! Even better, this time it is Christmas-themed, because it’s Christmas! It’s a truism these days that, wherever several are gathered when a white lady (or a dumb white man trying to work out his resentment over why he didn’t do better in life) goes on a racist tirade in public, somebody will pull out their Obamaphone and film the whole thing, and they will get reaction shots from the other bystanders, who are equally as “WTF?” as everybody else about the fragile, melting white snowflake making noise in front of them."

How do you spot a fake?
"Graham Wetzbarger is an expert at spotting a fake. He’s Director of Authentication at Californian company The RealReal. The company, which identifies the genuine luxury items to sell them on, now operates in more than 60 countries. The UK border police seized more than a quarter of a million pounds worth of fake designer goods coming in to the UK in the last few weeks at Manchester Airport alone. Graham talks to Winifred Robinson about spotting fake luxury goods and what to watch out for."

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Xmas Files:
"Candy Jar Books have announced a new, free-to-download festive adventure in their Lethbridge-Stewart range, The Feast of Evans by Simon A Forward."

Sue Perkins Drives You Home For Christmas:
"Sue is first UK voice of the free, real time, crowdsourced traffic and navigation app powered by drivers, following US stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Morgan Freeman."

First teaser for ‘Blade Runner 2049’ released:
[Editor's note: Breathtaking. Is Deckard a replicant? If this is a sequel to the theatrical cut then no, and so we just move on with the fact that he's simply aged here like a normal human. But if this follows the pattern of The Final Cut and what Ridley Scott's said in interviews, perhaps the secret implied in the synopsis is that some replicants did not have four year expiry dates. Or indeed none at all, with Blade Runners acting as a way of thinning the numbers. In which case there's a chance here that the notions of protagonist/antagonist of going to be very complex here.]

Which Christmas Songs You’re Most Likely To Hear On The Radio:
"The top 10 holiday tunes played on terrestrial radio account for a whopping 38 percent of all holiday tracks played during the period I pulled data for. We have different amounts of data from different stations because some flipped the switch to the holiday format before others. But when we divide the stations into their constituent Census regions, there’s some variety in how often the top 10 get played."

Giving at Christmas Time:
"The traditions of giving to the less fortunate is alive and well today and many of us will receive leaflets about Christmas charity campaigns through our doors this festive, and witness charity fundraising events whilst out and about. One tradition which has a long heritage is that of the gift of food. Food banks are a topic of current debate and collection baskets for ‘extra items’ you have purchased are now a regular feature in supermarkets."

BBC One & Two Christmas idents:
"When BBC Television began more than years 80 ago, the idea of a TV channel identity was essentially, an unknown concept. One channel, it was the channel, that was the identity, it existed, say no more."

Feeling Festive:
"My final baking projects of the year are done and dusted and I’m really looking forward to Christmas now. The only bakes left to make are the ones that my family and I are going to enjoy over the next week or so. If you want to give the gingerbread house above a go, this week’s blog has everything you need to know."

Top 10 festive food traditions in Europe:
"Whether it’s cinnamon biscuits in Brussels, potato-anchovy casserole in Stockholm or Christmas pudding with a twist in Copenhagen, there’s a wealth of culinary delights on offer at yuletide."

Meetings with seven remarkable Christmas trees:
"Do you wish your Christmas tree had just a little more artistic credibility? You’re not alone. As various galleries and institutions unveil their spectacular festive firs for 2016, created by the world’s leading artists, ALASDAIR MacRAE presents seven examples of Christmas trees that went for something a little different."

Time for some 'Brexmas' Brexitwashing:
"Christmas is always a busy time for retailers and this year will be absolutely no different. As such, Brexit fanzine the Sunday Express may be over-reaching a little with its front page urging readers to consider this Christmas a triumph for Brexit."

An Experiment with Time and Christmas:
"Listeners on Christmas Day evening, 1931, were first treated to the traditional staple of a Christmas service from studio, panto and an appeal on behalf of the British Wireless for the Blind."

The Christmas High Street Christmas Food Taste Test:
"In recent years, the run-up to Christmas has become a race between high street supermarkets, shops, and cafes to see who can come up with the most exciting and innovative festive twists on lunchtime food. Knowing our European counterparts tend to look less than favourably upon British cuisine, we asked teams of French and German BuzzFeed employees to try a sample of British high street Christmas food, to see if our winter offerings redeem us in international eyes."

Boston U. student raises $700 for homeless man just before Christmas:
"Blake Smith, a Boston University junior, turned a class assignment into a Christmas gift. His task? “Create a video that persuades people to think about something differently” for a communications course. Smith’s immediate idea was to craft a video showcasing a man he knows as Freddy, a friendly homeless man in Boston’s Kenmore Square."

Twelve of the best Radio Times Christmas covers:
"For 93 years the Radio Times Christmas issue has been as much a part of British seasonal festivities as mince pies and tinsel. ALISTAIR McGOWN pulls out his highlighter pen to select a dozen front covers that tell its story."

Christmas in Colorado through the years:
"It's finders keepers for boys and Christmas Tree For these two boys Christmas came early and they made the most of it in 1977. Ralph Martinez, 6, left, and Manuel Montoya, 7, carry a small but bushy Christmas tree along 3000 block of Zuni Street. The two boys found the trophy in alley and immediately started the trek home with tree. Ernie Leyba, The Denver Post Library Archive."

Celebrating 65 years of Peanuts:
" This online exhibition is adapted from the full version that was on view in the Museum’s comic strip rotation gallery from August 19, 2015 to January 10, 2016."

Slow Cooker Christmas Spiced Red Cabbage:
"Ever had a cooker crisis on Christmas Day? I think we've all been there haven't we, with too many dishes and too little space. I try and make as much as I can ahead of time these day's - I cook my meat the day before (and the gravy too), pre cook my sprouts, par boil the potatoes and make and cook the stuffing in a loaf tin. It all helps come Christmas morning and this year I've called on my slow cooker for help too."

Cate Blanchett Narrates This Lovely Ad About the Different Ways People Celebrate Christmas:
"Everyone celebrates Christmas a little differently. Some people like to throw ugly sweater parties; others like to blow past the season without giving it a second thought. A new campaign from retailer David Jones starring actress Cate Blanchett gives viewers a glimpse into what the holiday brings for people in Australia. You might find it's not so different from your own celebrations."

30 years, 700+ pieces: Annual Christmas display brings family together:
"Most people put up lights and a tree to celebrate Christmas. One man built a miniature village in his basement. Around 1985 Jeff Ziegler got a couple Coca-Cola house figurines from his mom back. He’s not really sure when things took a turn, but two years ago he counted 550 figurine people and over 100 structures. That number has grown and he’s quite frank about not actually knowing where his collection stands today."

Class comes to BBC One:
"The BBC has confirmed thet the Doctor Who spin-off series will be shown on BBC One this January. The first episode can be seen on Monday 9th January at 10.45pm."
[Editor's note: Which used to be about standard for the re-broadcasting of BBC Three programmes back in the analogue days when BBC Three was only on digital. But more recently shows have been in decent slots on BBC Two since (Fleabag etc) and that seemed to be Class's fate. Perhaps the iPlayer numbers haven't been as they expected so they've decided to dump it here instead. If only it had actually been any good ...]

Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America:
"Halfway through a recent late lunch at the Trump Grill—the clubby steakhouse in the lobby of Trump Tower that has recently become famous through the incessant media coverage of its namesake landlord, and the many dignitaries traipsing through its marbled hall to kiss his ring—I sensed the initial symptoms of a Trump overdose. Thanks to an unprecedented influx of diners, we were sitting at a wobbly overflow table outside the restaurant, in the middle of a crush of tourists, some of whom were proposing to their partners, or waiting to buy Trump-branded merchandise, or sprinting to the bathroom."

The Worst Films of 2016:
"No room for run-of-the-mill bad movies here. To qualify for our scroll of shame, a movie had to be one of the truly godawful, the inept, the ugly, the offensive, or — no small offense — the deadly boring. Here is Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge’s list of the 10 Worst Films of 2016."

The patriarchy, actually. What our favourite Christmas films mean in 2016:
"From the housing crisis of It’s a Wonderful Life to the white, male hegemony of Love Actually, festive classics now seem more relevant than ever."
[Editor's note: Yes, but Love Actually presents these men, in general, as heroes. They're the protagonists. In no way is it supposed to be satire.]

Christmas Cupcakes by Nigella:
"These beauties also make a very good alternative to mince pies. I buy the icing ready made and dyed (which is why it isn’t a very convincing colour for holly, let’s be frank) and use cranberries as the holly berries. The cake underneath is somewhere between chocolate and gingerbread. If you’re thinking of taking anything to friends’ houses, may I suggest these?"
Rolling Stones waive their royalties on Jo Cox tribute single:
"Bookmakers William Hill also pledge donate to charity all money staked on the cover of You Can’t Always Get What You Want reaching Christmas No 1."

The Puritans Who Stole Christmas:
"On 8 June 1647 Parliament enacted a law to abolish holy days, including Christmas (although it replaced them with secular days of rest). This legislation made it a criminal offence to celebrate, in any shape or form, the feast of Christmas, and was the latest in a series of attempts by zealously devout Parliamentarians to redefine Christmas as a time for humility instead of lavish celebration."

Campaign begins to counter 'all white' Christmas:
"A new campaign that aims to counter images of an “all white” Christmas is to be launched on Thursday to increase the number of black and ethnic minority families portrayed enjoying the festive period."

Holy shit: Somebody edited 400 versions of A Christmas Carol into one coherent movie:
"YouTuber Heath Waterman has celebrated those many, many iterations of Charles Dickens’ classic by editing 400 of them together into a single, coherent narrative. Questions asked in one rendition are answered by characters in another; one actor’s portrayal of Scrooge might fall from the sky, but a different one will land. Since the beats of the story are so consistent, everything unfolds cleanly."

The Twelve Monsters of Christmas:
"Christmas isn’t just about a coca-cola marketing gimmick, it has a long and often dark history. Even the kindly St Nick wasn’t always the genial character we think of today. As good needs its evil, here are 12 of the monsters that terrorised the Yule season."

Nine budget-friendly Christmas gift ideas:
"Christmas. Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also, without a doubt, the most expensive time of the year too. According to some reports, the average family spends about £800 a year on Christmas. That’s a lot of dosh, especially if you are cash strapped and watching every penny."

Sugababes ‘Boys’ Finally Leaks, Nearly Four Years Later:
[editor's note: Sob, sob. If only they'd this out instead of Flatline or at least part of a logical release strategy rather than the funeral we otherwise attended. Of course it sounds a bit dated now. It is four years old. But it's an even better expression of how Siobhan's vocal complemented Mutya and Keisha in a way Heidi never really did.]

What We Just Watched: Christmas Special 2016:
"Two earnest men from TV Cream have come together under the flag of peace on Earth and goodwill to all other earnest men. Their purpose? To make each other watch a Christmas-related TV show, of which they’ve had no prior warning. Then they’ll chat about what they’ve seen. Yes, it’s got enough ‘format points’ to make it an actual thing."

Doctors: A Christmas Carol:
"See our cast as you've never seen them before in today's A Christmas Carol. Filmed on one of the hottest weeks in July, we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together."

Why you shouldn't give a goat this Christmas:
"If you are looking for a charity gift that really makes a difference, just give cash. While it's nice to imagine tents, water tanks and food parcels being rushed to a far-flung village beset by misfortune this Christmas, it could wind up being of dubious value." [via]

Students remove Shakespeare portrait in English dept., aiming for inclusivity:
"Penn English professor and Department Chair Jed Esty was surprised to find a large portrait of William Shakespeare waiting in his office. A group of students removed the iconic portrait from the walls of Fisher- Bennett Hall and delivered it to Esty’s office after an English Department town hall meeting discussing the election, which took place on Thursday December 1. They replaced it with a photo of Audre Lorde, a black female writer."

Doctor Who Christmas Countdown:
"With Christmas just a few shopping days' away, and Doctor Who: 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio' lined up for a post-prandial eyeball-feast, James Cooray Smith sizes up the previous Yuletide offerings in his festive episode countdown."

New Yorker Christmas Covers, Then and Now:
"If you need a break from shopping for just the right gift to arrive at just the right time, take a look at these vintage New Yorker covers celebrating the rituals of holidays past: you’ll see that it has never been easy."

The Real Reason Charles Dickens Wrote A Christmas Carol:
"After a particularly bleak year, millions in the English-speaking world and beyond will seek some comfort by watching a converted miser in a nightshirt, skipping about as light as a feather. “Whoop! Hallo! …What's to-day my fine fellow?”"

More Sleigh Bell: A Guide to 2016’s Most Notable Christmas Albums:
"Christmas music can provoke as much strong emotion, or sea-sick ambivalence, as the holidays themselves. Say it’s early December; you’re in a supermarket or bookstore, and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”—or Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” or the Temptations’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”—starts playing. Are you filled with joy, or plunged into a month-long depression? Does the song strike you as pleasantly nostalgic or suffocatingly familiar? Do you love it? Hate it? Love to hate it or hate to love it? Fight or flight? Maybe all of the above?"